Tuesday, December 19, 2006

College holidays are a great time for getting into reading all the books, not on the reading list, which I have been wanting to get into all term. The latest is Neil Mackay's "The War on Truth" which is an examination of the spin and deceit that paved the way for the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

This book is infuriating reading, for two reasons. Firstly the subject matter: we knew we were being lied to, we protested and campaigned against the invasion - but were led into an bloody, illegal, immoral and globally divisive conflict by New Labour lobby-fodder. To have the process of the progress to war, and the long-term neo-con planning of the event, (an about turn after their arming Saddam against Iran) explicated in detail is as painful as it is shameful. The cost in human life in an ill-fated attempt to maintain US hegemony, in order to stave off the impending energy crisis, is not merely regrettable, it is sinful.

The book has also annoyed me though, in the way that it has been written, The author (of the Sunday Herald) has read far too much Michael Moore and is desperately trying to mimic is cocky, swaggering style. He would have done far better to let the facts speak for their ghastly selves without inserting his invasive style between the argument and the reader.

However, this is a small matter indeed, in the light of the fact that the UK has thrown away its virtuous military heritage gained from the defeat of Nazi Germany which has guided us for six decades and reverted to a Palmerstonian use of our armed forces. Worse still is the fact that whereas the 'just-war' theory (based on Christian principles stretching back as least as far as Augustine) has been jettisoned in favour of the doctrine of the 'pre-emptive strike'. Under this dark guise our governments' can lead us to war against anyone that they tell usis a threat to our security. Such a war would be questionable as it would deny the potential aggressor the option of pulling back from the brink at the last minute. However more dangerous than that is that we rely on governments to tell us when our security is threatened and to order us to war. And governments lie.

While Saddam's regime is hardly a great loss to the world, a greater tragedy is that the people of places such as Darfur are left to rot, because their evil oppressors don't happen to own the world's second largest oil reserves.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Sunday, December 17, 2006

I have a new toy to play with, a nice little web cam! It matches one we have given to my mum for her birthday so that she can chat to all her grandchildren live on line (the ultimate silver-surfing gizmo's, surely?).

The web cam has worked pretty well so far, although as the following demonstrate, it goes all berserk in a kind of Narcissus-like way too!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Well it's been a good day or two being the father of number two son, aka "Norris". Although, as previously blogged, his last effort at appearing in a nativity play began well but descended into high farce, yesterday's public performance went really well. Not only did he sit still (!) and sing well, but there were no squabbles onstage and he wasn't overwhelmed with the irresistible urge to publicly shed his attire as previously.

What was fun was to watch him enjoying the applause and sitting down after his solo, with a grin - and then a huge sigh of relief. "Are you 'Norris' Dad?", a few people said to me at the end. A year ago when he was having hearing and behavioural problems those words would have made my heart sink with a heavy, 'what has he done now?'. It was nice that this time it was to say how well he had done.

There is a short QuickTime movie clip of him singing, available for download from another site. If friends and family want to see it, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you the URL.

We often go for walks on the island, on the grass through the trees! The last blurred picture is of a large round bale of straw rushing down the river. Fields up stream up the city must be really flooded if loads this size are getting washed away.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Yesterday, young Norris starred as Joseph in the nursery nativity play, the highlight of which was his lovely solo rendition of 'away in a manger.' Less pleasing to all however, was his desire to then follow his vocal performance with a striptease. The coat, the shirt, the shoes were all flung aside and he was topless and reaching for his trousers before the nursery teacher (thankfully)intervened.

In his defence he claimed that one of the wise-men had picked up some of the straw (meant to make the stage look like a stable) and put it down the neck of his Joseph costume. Scratching frantically he was tearing off his clothes in a bid to stop the itching! The shepherds then followed this up by having a fight amongst themselves!

Even better, I am told the whole sorry affair was caught on video. Coming soon to a TV near you...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

More torential rain today meant that the River Earn was once again out of its banks and flooding the fields. Driving back today from Dunning I spotted this view and captured it in honour of a notorious river engineer who posted on here last week!

Work continues in the kitchen, the old floor being ripped up and excavated, and then the surface prepared for new tiles to be laid tomorrow. With the kitchen out of use, we're eating sandwiches in the living room and generally enjoying the chaos and disorder erupting around us. More happily I am eating out tonight at Kerrachers, an excellent fish restaurant at which you can pay lots for their fancy menu or just tuck into their £15/head set meals. Tonight it's the latter - one of the best value for money quality meals available around here. A positive note is that this is to be shared with our church housegroup, the negative is that The War Department can't come as she's working.

The shock news is that it now looks as if I may have passed my exam! The confusion is because I missed a term of study (spring 06) during which they introduced a new marking scheme, and what I thought was a % grade wasn't! In addition to this when the lecturer e-mailed my result to me he appended a :-( to the grade. Uuurrrggh! I can't get hold of the lecturer to check this out though.

I'm feeling very sorry for myself this morning after getting my exam result. It is by far the worst result I have ever had in higher education, (and compared to most people I have done a lot of higher ed.) I knew the exam had not gone well- but to find out that it had gone that spectacularly badly is pretty galling given the fact that I had done a lot of work and thought I was making some good progress. I don't know if I misunderstood some central element to the course or was completely illegible, either way I am sulking at home licking my wounds.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Norris is getting ready to appear in the Nursery nativity play tomorrow as Joseph - a role which demands a singing solo. Sadly, his preparations have been thrown into chaos as he has acquired an acute conjunctivitis, really angry, itchy and red. Fortunately "The War Department" (for it is she) has arranged to have some eye-drops prescribed and they may have sorted it out in time for Norris to tread the boards tomorrow morning.

The last nursery performance was notable for Norris leaving the stage and walking down to the front row of the audience to angrily rebuke a woman who he felt wasn't singing suitably. Let's hope tomorrow is less memorable.

It has been brought to my attention that when I refer to my good lady on this blog as, "the wife" she finds this offensive, disrespectful and the like. I tried pointing out that I wasn't using SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) to refer to my wife, like Simon does to his! However, her objection remains intact. Any suggestions of a better title? I suspect "The termagant" might equally be vetoed by herself.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

For ages we have had the inconvenience of a step running accross our kitchen floor, making it dangerous to have chairs/stools in the kitchen. One architect, one building warrant officer, three builders and three invoices later - work has begun to rectify this.

The wife has chosen some tiles which will be laid accross the new infill and replace the cracking tiled floor in the rest of the kitchen. These are natural slate, which look very pleasant but which require treating with some foul chemical prior to their installation. The stuff painted on, apparently makes the slate resistant to grease and fluid, which would otherwise stain it. Here's a picture of Bob the Builder's assistant making our house absolutely stink of stone treatment.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

I sat down with the wife this evening to watch a film. Her choice. It was called "The Lake House" and starred Keanu Reaves and Sandra Bullock. It is an hour and half of my life that I will never get back, so slow and pointless that not even Sandra Bullock's doe eyes could save it. It is the sorry offspring of "Back to the Future" crossbred with "You've got mail", the kind of entertainment that ought to be made available to insomniacs on the NHS. The highlight of the film was when the wife dug me in the ribs and said "Oy, you're falling asleep!". The cinematographical gender gap was never so wide.

Yes, I am reeling from an exam in which I didn't perform well! Although the paper was fair enough, and in line both with the content of the course and previous papers I wasn't well enough prepared (mostly due to "circumstances beyond my control"). I felt that although I knew a fair amount about the subject, and had done sufficient reading, I couldn't adequately organise my thoughts which seemed to come tumbling out onto the paper without much clarity. Hopefully my answers will be enough to avoid the dread of a resit, and my answers sufficiently legible too.

I haven't written a full-length exam for about nine years! I remember when I did my first degree, no kids, no house, no responsibilities and day after day available for concentrated study. Not anymore, with a wife and three children, grabbing odd minutes here and there to study are all I can manage - and what I am able to achieve suffers likewise.

On a more positive note I can add that the Christology module at ICC is excellent; really probing, insightful and challenging. Not only does it cover all the debates surrounding the formulations of the Nicean Creed and Chalcedonian definition, but engages critically with this tradition and its strengths and limitations as a useful and faithful contextual understanding of Jesus.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

When the Tay in spate, its not just a magnificent sight but also a wonderful sound. Here at the old bridge, the river thunders under the arches. The culvert where the town lade meets the river was completely submerged with the additional water bubbling up in great ripplings and churnings. The speed, depth and power of river is wonderful to watch, and it's not just our family that thinks that, last night the river bank was full of people watching, as well as the BBC reporting on the flooding. The river was within in an inch of the top of the banks, as they were before the flood defences added about 4/5 feet to their height. This means that Perth's very expensive anti-flood measures have still not really been put through their paces. A few more nights of torrential rain and we'll find out if they are a wise investment or our own local equivalent of the Scottish Parliament building...

Monday, December 04, 2006

The river is at bankfull, much more rain and there may be floods. The town centre will presumably be alright, behind its floodwall, but there have been 'severe flood warnings' issued for the Dunkeld area and for the River Earn too.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Tomorrow is the wife's birthday. The best thing about this is that the kids will enjoy making a fuss of their Mum and their Mum will enjoy the experience. The worst part of this is that it entails a shopping trip with all the kids to find suitable presents. It's not that she's hard to find things for, just that she has a tendency not to like anything we can afford....

Walking towards the shops, I discussed the options will Boris. "You could get her some jewellry", I suggested. "Dad, you don't want to spend that much!" he replied.